New Mac Pro somehow reverted to earlier state! Time Machine Off!

I have a new Mac Pro running 10.6.4 (see sig for details). I left it idle a half-day while tending to some errands. Nothing major was running, just a few browser windows and a basic Apple screen saver. When I returned, the system was hung with a blue screen and spinning dial. I waited a while, gave up, and turned it off with power button. Turned back on, loaded up in a snap, and everything seemed OK.

When I opened Apple Mail, I noticed messages previously read and/or deleted were marked unread. When I restored my browser session (Firefox), it loaded tabs I had already closed hours earlier. And when I opened a TextEdit doc I use to type notes, it loaded a previous version even though I knew with certainty I had saved newer versions. It was like my computer had gone back in time 8 hrs.

It's not related to Time Machine, I have it turned off until I receive my new backup drive. Also, it's not due to Apple's software updates or the recent firmware update, which had already been installed.

I run my system and apps from the OWC SSD. Hard disks are set never to turn off. RAM is a mix of 3rd party and Apple. No other problems or issues I'm aware of.

Run 'Console' (in /Applications/Utilities) and select "All Messages" in the left pane. Scroll the right pane to the approximate time you think the fault happened and see if there are any error messages. Some of the log may look like gibberish if you have never used this app. Post it up here and we can take a look if you see something suspicious.

Thanks for the suggestion. I copied the log and replaced personal info with "xxxx". For some reason the time stamps at the beginning are out of order, as they appeared in the log. I added bold print to one line. "Mercury" is my boot drive, "Maverick" is backup/media. Thanks for your help.

There are several "journal replay" entries, consistent with your observations. Your hard disk may be failing.

I would back up your data immediately before running disk scanning programs. This stress of a scan could damage the drive further and make your data irretrievable.

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Agreed; I thought the OP had a current backup and just turned off Time Machine recently. But on re-reading the post I am not so sure the OP's backup is current. So get those files backed up ASAP and then run the diagnostics.

Your files reverting to previous versions made me suspect journal replaying was involved, and it looks like your machine thinks it crashed or otherwise had an abnormal shutdown prior to the 6 a.m. entries.

Was your previous shutdown a normal software shutdown? If not, this can corrupt the directory and makes it more likely to be directory damage rather than hardware failure. But just in case, get those files backed up, then run Diskwarrior.

I do have backups. I just disabled Time Machine until a dedicated backup drive arrived. I don't fully understand Time Machine yet so I was relying more on old-fashioned manual backups.

I rarely shut down my machine. My previous shutdown was related to the firmware update a few days ago, which completed normally. Now that I think about it, I believe this rollback has happened once before, maybe a month ago. I was puzzled about some old browser windows re-opening which I was sure I had closed.

I just ran Disk Utility from a separate drive. "Repair Disk" found no issues on the primary (SSD) drive. "Repair Permissions" fixed three errors. No problems were found on the 2nd drive.

Before I shell out for Disk Warrior, are there any other thoughts based on this update? Should I shut down my machine a few times and see if anything strange happens? Thanks.

Before I shell out for Disk Warrior, are there any other thoughts based on this update? Should I shut down my machine a few times and see if anything strange happens? Thanks.

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Since you're backed up, sure. Check the console after each restart to see if the OS replays the journal again or reports an abnormal shutdown. If so -- and if the disk continues to check out clean, it could be a damaged installation of Mac OS X or you might have gotten a bad SSD that intermittently fails. Have you tried shutting down and re-seating the SSD's connector?

As for DiskWarrior, most agree that it's an indispensable tool. I'd get it even if you eventually solve this issue. I run it every month or so as a preventative measure on all my disks, and it often finds minor damage that Disk Utility misses and sometimes major issues. Most of my consulting clients use it, too.

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